After The Work

Gazing out of the window on this New Year’s day, awakening to see daybreak reveal a thin layer of newly laid snow on the ground. It covers over the dark pavement, dead leaves, yellowed grass, and other detritus left over from the cold weather’s touch. What was once chaotic is now uniform, bringing a unity to the death of a years worth of work the plant life put in. There is an odd comfort in the uniformity, allowing Nature to do what has been done for countless days before. Another year’s worth of toil has come to an end, and we await spring’s Breath to come again to restore what was lost.

A new year brings hope and trepidation, growth and yet again death. We seek to put aside the past year and hope to grow from our mistakes. We seek atonement so that our lives may grow anew. The snow cover reminds us that “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”. Death has to take place for new life to begin again. Within our hearts, the detritus of our sin and tears is covered over by the comforting Presence of the Lord and his mercy. Our shadow sees Light and we receive new understanding that we too can live again. No longer must we fear another year because Nature itself reminds us that as natural as death is, so is life.

What will 2024 bring to the world in a time that has never been seen before? What societal detritus will be left behind? What of our families? Our country? Our world? No matter the growth, there will be also that which must come to an end. We are comforted to know that the cycle continues irrespective of our thoughts on the matter. Time is not interested in whether we approve and is deaf to our posts and opinions that we shout into the ether.

God’s ear is, however, inclined to listen. We whisper our hopes and fears to him in prayers most earnest and profound. He listens and offers “Be still” as the ground covered in snow. “I have come to give life and life in full” he reminds a trembling world. That which has died will rise again, even if only in your heart. The world will rise and reach to Love as the spring flowers stretch their arms towards the sun once again!